Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78

“[Svetlanov's] right on top of his game in this performance and so too are the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra.The music leaps out of the loudspeakers right from the start...This is a tremendous, gripping performance of The Bells. If there’s a better one in the catalogue I should love to hear it... This is a phenomenal disc! It shows Evgeny Svetlanov at his incandescent, inspirational best.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“a performance of The Bells that was possessed of a passion, an intensity and a radiant glow that were qualities forever associated with a Svetlanov concert...Svetlanov could plumb the music’s very soul...Throughout, the orchestral playing is rich, luminous and lucid of texture. The CD is worth having for this performance alone. Coupled with Svetlanov’s 1988 Alexander Nevsky, it is a must.” The Telegraph, 25th May 2012

“Abbado's performance of Alexander Nevsky culminates in a deeply moving account of the tragic lament after the battle (here very beaitfully sung by Obraztsova)...The chorus is as incisive as the orchestra.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Järvi catches the icy bitterness of the Russian winter snows at the very opening and is pungently overwhelming in the “Battle of the Ice”… It’s difficult to envisage anyone quite matching Järvi’s intimidatory SNO brass in this score’s more savage pages… a terrific display, excitingly engineered.” Gramophone Magazine

“Listening to this has been a little like running some Technicolor, super-Panavision, Dolby stereo remake of Eisenstein’s 1938 black-and-white classic through one’s head. Such is Järvi’s graphic and wonderfully evocative sense of the visual and cinematic… and once again Järvi is handsomely served in his epic endeavours by some quite spectacular Chandos engineering” Hi-Fi News

“Time has proved Järvi's 1988 recordings of film score suites by Prokofiev uncontested, which explains their re-release. Time also reminds us what a stunning contralto the Scot Linda Finnie was. Here she soothes the Russian Army with a sad folk melody in the Alexander Nevsky Suite, excised from the score for Eisenstein's eponymous patriotic film. Strength, not age gave Finnie those voluminous low notes - too little was made of her career. Järvi, conducting the Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus, achieves a quivering sheen in the Battle on the Ice and a passionate noise from the singers as they undiplomatically name their enemy (the Swedes).” The Times, 16th August 2008 ****

“Listening to the 88-year-old Leopold Stokowski take a scenic if somewhat circuitous route through César Franck's D minor Symphony is something of a culture shock. This particular interpretation was also commercially recorded (the rousing Ravel Fanfare, too, both for Decca Phase Four), but live being live, the concert draws us nearer to the edge – and in this case the edge is refreshingly dangerous. Quite how the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic followed every twist and turn in Stokowski's maverick journey is a wonder to behold, and so is the sheer energy and youthfulness of it all. Tempi vary virtually by the bar but somehow it all adds up. Of course there were vintage Stokowski-led D minor predecessors from Philadelphia but here the richness of tone, 'shimmering sonority' (to quote composer Lex van Delden), jaw-dropping flexibility and sense of communal excitement carries you along…though best if you leave your study score on the shelf! Prokofiev's Nevsky is rather a different matter, fitfully thrilling but less secure overall. Then again, Stokowski hadn't conducted it nearly as often: he never recorded the work commercially though in 1943 he did direct the first American performance. 'Robust and lively' is how one might describe this performance, with tempi that sometimes sound a little rushed and a 'Battle on Ice' that starts well (aside for some imprecise string runs), accelerates from a very slow trudge but disappoints when the chirpy string theme barges in at around the halfway point, a little stodgily in this case, though the tension soon builds again. Warm singing from Sophia van Sante in 'The Field of the Dead' is a bonus, the voice and orchestra staying the same course…just about. It's all pretty impressive, warts'n'all – and very well recorded though there are one or two odd balances in Nevsky.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Quite how the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic followed every twist and turn in Stokowski's maverick journey [César Franck's Symphony] is a wonder to behold, and so is the sheer energy and youthfulness of it all. Tempi vary virtually by the bar but somehow it all adds up.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2008